The headwind that year favored Democrats and Oâ€™Donnell knew it was going to be a tough fight but felt he had made his case to the voters in Jefferson, Adams and Arapahoe counties.

â€śIâ€™ve given people a reason to vote for me,â€ť he said, in his candidate profile. â€śThis isnâ€™t a campaign of anger â€” itâ€™s a positive campaign based on hope and change and ideals.â€ť

I recently came across that story from the Rocky Mountain News, read that paragraph and was stopped cold. â€śHope and changeâ€ť has been so overused since the Obama campaign but back then that it was a statement good enough to close an article with.

Perlmutter won, but this time around in his race against Republican Ryan Frazier he’s the facing a headwind. And it’s even worse because itâ€™s fueled by millions of dollars.

Something else in the Rocky article caught my eye, too:

During their (debate), O’Donnell kept track of how many times Perlmutter attacked him, President Bush, the Republican Party, the governor and other leaders.

“Blaming the other party for everything that’s gone wrong isn’t the way to move this country forward,” O’Donnell said.

That’s fascinating on two counts. One, Perlmutter still brings up Bush whenever he gets the chance. And two, now it’s Republicans who are constantly attacking the other party.

“And two, now itâ€™s Republicans who are constantly attacking the other party.” Where have you been? As soon as a Republican attacks his Democrat opponent the next commercial is a Democrat attacking his Republican opponent. In all fairness, it goes both ways.

Guest

“And two, now itâ€™s Republicans who are constantly attacking the other party.” Where have you been? As soon as a Republican attacks his Democrat opponent the next commercial is a Democrat attacking his Republican opponent. In all fairness, it goes both ways.

Guest

“And two, now itâ€™s Republicans who are constantly attacking the other party.” Where have you been? As soon as a Republican attacks his Democrat opponent the next commercial is a Democrat attacking his Republican opponent. In all fairness, it goes both ways.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.